ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein provided an update Saturday on how contact tracing works in Erie County.
That's the process by which health officials track where someone has been and who they may have been in contact with after they test positive for COVID-19.
Contact tracers call the "index case" or the person who is infected to make sure they are okay and have their needs met. They will then explain to the index case how to follow isolation orders, and then they ask who with whom they've been in close contact.
Close contact is different depending on the disease. For coronavirus, this involves anyone that was within six feet of the index case for 15 minutes or longer, especially if they were not wearing a mask.
Contact tracers want to know who has been in close contact with the index case as far back as two days before their symptoms started, or if they don't have symptoms, two days before they were tested.
Contact tracers then call each of these people and let them know they are under quarantine and recommend that they get tested. They will explain what quarantine is and how to get released from quarantine.
The health department contact tracers will try calling individuals three times, and if they do not pick up, they will then mail the information to them.
Release from isolation orders can differ depending on their type of employment.
The state is developing a new system for contact tracing and will be providing online training for contact tracers, and it will take four to six hours to complete. Counties will have to provide additional training to their specific contact tracers.
The state hopes to roll out this new system next week, Burstein said.
Burstein added that they are confident that they have 270 Erie County employees that they can have fill the contact tracing positions locally.
The state is recruiting people to help in other counties that need additional contact tracers.
2 On Your Side's Ron Plants asked if HIPPA laws complicate any aspect of the anonymity of the contact tracing.
Burstein said that while contact tracers will not disclose who the index case was, the person being notified by the contact tracer may figure out who the index case was if they only had one person they were in close contact with.